Sunday, September 15, 2013

Today's Meet The Author - Tina Gerow

Glad to
speak with you today Tina Gerow (aka Cassie Ryan)!

Tell us
about all about you…as the non- author first then about you as author.

I have a
varied background. I’ve done many
different things – band director, Dominos pizza manager, House manager of a
30-plex movie theatre, Business Systems Analyst, Technologies Project and
Program Manager and Starbucks barista, but I’ve always wanted to be an
author. I live in Arizona with my hubby,
my 19-year-old son, two feisty cats, one king snake, and several fish…

I'm a
multi published author under two pen names. I write sensual paranormal romance
as Tina Gerow and erotic paranormal romance as Cassie Ryan.

I'm also an experienced line editor and a public
speaker on many topics both motivational and writing related and teach online
writing classes several times throughout the year.

So basically I'm a slacker ex band director with
an outgoing personality and an overactive imagination that I've put to work for
the safety of myself and others :)

How long
have you been writing?

I’ve written
something or other all of my life and always dreamed of a day when I’d see one
of my books on the shelf, but I didn’t start writing seriously until 2003 when
my husband encouraged me to stop talking about it and DO it J
I joined RWA and hit the ground running.

What
inspires you to write in the style that you do? (what genre do you write in?
does it vary?)

I grew up
loving anything paranormal in both books and movies. And when I hit my teen years I started
stealing books off of my brother’s bookshelf – Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey,
Terry Brooks and a whole host of others.
I actually HATED romance for a long time. I had read a few of my mom’s Harlequins when I was ten or eleven (she probably still
doesn’t know about that!) The heroines
at that time were wimpy and whiney – or at least to me. I wanted them to stand up for themselves,
wield their own swords and kick some ass!
But then when I went on a vacation with a friend in my late 20’s and I
ran out of books on the beach so she loaned me Nora Robert’s Born in Fire. It wasn’t paranormal, but I fell in love with
the characters, the vivid descriptions, and yes, the romance of it all. From there, I read the rest of that series
and began to branch out to other romance authors and found some paranormal
romance authors like Cheyenne McCray and Sherrilyn Kenyon who became
favorites. Then I began to think I might
actually be able to write in that genre, so when I joined RWA that’s where I
started. My first book Into a Dangerous
Mind, was about a psychic serial killer and has gone on to win several awards
and be published in Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish. It will be available on audio book soon! I only have one book out that doesn’t have
any paranormal in it – it’s Take It Off and is a fun little contemporary
romance with lots of snark – and snark is in ALL of my books. I tried my hand at erotic paranormal romance
several years ago and Kensington picked me up for a three book deal. That’s how Cassie Ryan was born. Those are all paranormal and all smokin’ hot J
I don’t see myself foregoing either the paranormal or the romance any
time soon. I love both writing and
reading them, so I think they are here to stay, at least for me!

How many
words per day do you like to write? Is that a daily goal or weekly goal?

I like to
TRY for at least three thousand words a day, but since my brain blowout a few
years ago, that goal has been a tough one to keep up with. Since then on a good day I can get in a few
thousand, but that involves at least a few naps. Sometimes instead I’ll give myself a time goal
– things like “I’m going to write for two hours today” and then depending on
how I’m feeling when that two hours is done, I can always extend it.

What is the
name of your first book? How long ago was

It printed?
Where did you market it and did you have a good sale number?

Into a
Dangerous Mind was my first book. I
published it originally with a small press publisher who has since gone out of
business. Its first release was in
2005. For marketing I took out ads at
several review sites like Romance Junkies, Fallen Angel Reviews and took
promotional items to Romantic Times convention and RWA Nationals. That’s back when My Space was the big social
media outlet, so I did promo on there as well.
It didn’t hit the market with a huge bang, but over time it is still my
best selling Tina Gerow book to date. In
the last few years my agent has sold the foreign language rights so that now
it’s available not only in English, but in Spanish, Portuguese and
Turkish. And I’m finally putting my
audio book rights into play and should have that available before Christmas of
this year.

I understand
you have a book series. How many books are in the series (or will be in the
series when completed)? How did you come to write a series?

I have a few
series under both pen names. As Tina I
have the Maiden series. There will be
four in that series when it’s done. The
only reason there are four is that there are four sisters in it and each one of
them will get their own story. I wrote
the first two and then that publisher went under so I never got to publish the
last two in that series. I still want to
go back and finish those and publish them on my own. People ask me all the time when I’m going to
do that so I need to make it happen in the next few years.

As Cassie
Ryan I have two series. The first one is
the Seduction series – Ceremony, Vision and Trio. I sent in a partial of Ceremony and when
Audrey LaFehr called to offer me the contract she asked me if I could make it
into a three book series. To be honest I
had no idea how I was going to do it when I assured her that of course I
could! But I did it and Ceremony of
Seduction is my best selling Cassie Ryan book to date and is in its second
printing. My second series for Cassie is
the Sisters of Darkness series. There
were supposed to be two more books after Seducing the Succubus and The Demon
and the Succubus, but Berkley didn’t pick up the last two books in the
series. So I need to go back and write
those two as well. Fans are already
asking for those so it’s definitely on my To Do list. When I pitched the overall idea for the book
they asked me if I could write it in such a way so it would be a series, so
that’s how that one ended up as a four book series.

How do you
feel about online book reading? Do you have a book that you’ve written for a
digital shelf like ibooks or kindle?

I love
reading both online and in paperback.
Ebooks are really convenient and I have a kindle reader on my iPhone
that I use quite often. And sometimes
the e versions are cheaper than the print, which is nice when it happens. All of my books are available in e-formats –
pretty much any e-format you can imagine, in fact. If you go out to your favorite ebook site and
search by Tina Gerow or Cassie Ryan you should find them all.

Do you think
it’s worth to ask buyers to purchase a digital novel for the same amount of $
as a print novel?

I,
personally, think that’s ridiculous. An
electronic book should definitely be less expensive than a print book. I know there is labor involved in both
versions, but electronic doesn’t have printing and storage and postage and all
of that involved. Authors normally get
less royalties on those versions as well, which I also don’t agree with. But unless we self publish them, we don’t get
a say in how much the books are offered for.

How do you
think the change in the publishing industry affects authors today?

I know more
and more authors are self publishing. I
even know several New York Times best selling authors who have said they will
never publish another book through New York or small press. It’s going to be self pubbing all the way for
them. They have more control and they
make more money that way. Since they
already have a solid reader following, they can make quite a good living at it,
as they are already proving.

Authors have
more choices but with those choices comes more work on the author’s side. If we choose to self publish, not only are we
now writing the books, but we are finding ways to get them edited on our own,
finding and working with cover artists, figuring out marketing, copyright
filing, distribution and a whole host of other things that a traditional
publisher usually deals with. There are
definite plusses to both traditional publishing and self publishing and I think
authors owe it to themselves to stay educated on both and choose the best path
for them, which sometimes involves BOTH paths.

If you could
give a budding author advice what would it be?

Talk to
successful writers and make good connections.
A LOT of this business is about networking, so take the time to make
good connections, not only with other authors, but librarians, book cover
artists, editors, agents, readers and everyone else you can. Not only is it a great way to keep yourself
sane by surrounding yourself with other people who “get” the fact that you
constantly hear other people “talking” inside your head, but when you need it,
your network is a great place for information and support.

Beyond that
– ALWAYS read and follow ALL submissions guidelines. It will save you a LOT of pain AND rejections
J

And
write. Write lots and write even
more. And don’t forget to read!

And last –
don’t ever give up on your dream. Don’t
let anyone steal it or talk you out of it.
Grab it with both hands, invest in it and go after it! I fulfilled my dream of being a published
author, then my dream of being multi published and even award winning. My next one is to be a #1 Best Selling Author
on the New York Times list. Hey – go big
or go home, right? And I’m not giving up
until I get there!

Can you
recommend our readers a publisher that you like to work with?

There are several
great publishers out there but I’ve only worked with a few. Both small presses that I worked with are no
longer around, but I’m also published with Kensington (their Aphrodisia line as
Cassie Ryan) and Berkley (which is part of Penguin – also as Cassie Ryan) My best advice is to get plugged into a
writing network like RWA or even friend lots of writers on Facebook and pay
attention to what’s said, and what’s NOT said.
Ask around and form your own opinions.
Also, read books from those publishers and pay attention to the quality
of their products.

If you could
be a famous author, who would it be and why?

While I
don’t want to be long dead J I think I would choose Jane Austen. I love her books, but I also love her
spirit. Think about the spirit she had
to have to be a female writer during the time she lived in. I think she and I would’ve been good friends
since neither of us are wilting flowers.
I love that all of her stories delved so deeply into characters and
themes that they are still beloved today.
I would love to leave that kind of legacy behind when I go.